A hard to find Catoosa blaze in the wee hours of Saturday morning Dec. 27 which caused an estimated $4 million in damage is not expected to be arson, a state official said Jan. 8.

Wayne Whitaker, a spokesperson for the Office of Insurance and Fire Safety Commissioner John Oxendine, said that no determination for the cause of the fire has been made, but arson is not expected.

According to Catoosa County Fire & Rescue Capt. Clyde Ingle, he was told second hand that the fire was discovered by a medical unit driving down Ga. 151. Apparently, the unit believed it to be a massive forest fire.

Seven fire trucks and 22 volunteers responded at 3:28 a.m. in search of the fire.

“It had well advanced by the time it was located. No one was sure exactly where it was, so we did not have direct access,” he said. “We had no direct water supply and had to tank water to it.”

Ingle said the 20,000-square-foot, three story residence at 530 Craven Road south of Ringgold was fully engulfed by the time fire fighters arrived.

“The reason it grew so big was it burned so long before anyone notified authorities,” he said.

According to Whitaker, the structure under construction for two years was owned by Thomas Peeples of Dalton and was insured.

No one was injured in the fire, Ingle said